Wednesday, July 12, 2017
WMB - Hugh Fraser Seminar Room 2 (University of Glasgow)
The paper addresses the nexus of intra-European mobility and portability of social security rights using empirical large-scale research on recent Bulgarian mobility to Germany at the time when the social question in the European Union deserves greater attention. The dynamic mobility of Bulgarians is accompanied by a complexity and institutional limitations of European welfare provision. The paper examines the national implementations of European social security system in both countries, Bulgaria and Germany, and provides insights into how these institutional settings shape mobile Bulgarians’ welfare experiences. In particular, the paper offers insights into the mobile Bulgarians’ strategies of accessing welfare and the consequences for their transnational lives that have been overlooked in previous research. It, thus, provides insights into the nexus between intra-EU mobility, welfare and inequality experiences of ordinary Europeans.
